1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to installing panels on structures and, in particular, to attaching a wing skin to a wing box. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to a modular and reconfigurable support system for use in supporting, positioning, and loading a wing skin underneath a wing box for attachment to the wing box.
2. Background
The wing of an aircraft may be formed using a wing box and two wing skins. One wing skin may be attached to the upper side of the wing box, while the other wing skin may be attached to the lower side of the wing box. Depending on the implementation, a wing skin may be attached to a support structure of the wing box, ribs, spars, stringers, and/or one or more other types of components used to form a wing. Some currently available systems for supporting and loading a wing skin to the lower side of a wing box may create obstacles that limit access to the wing skin and/or wing box by personnel and/or equipment. For example, without limitation, the obstacles presented by this type of support system may present challenges for an operator to access certain portions of the wing skin and/or wing box without running into the support system and/or other equipment.
Further, some currently available systems for supporting and loading a wing skin may be less ergonomic than desired. For example, these currently available systems may require that operators work at a higher work height than desired and/or work from raised platforms. Consequently, performing operations, such as drilling operations, fastening operations, tacking operations, and/or other operations, may be more difficult and/or time-consuming than desired with these types of support systems.
In particular, some currently available systems may require that drilling operations and assembly operations be performed around obstructions created by these support systems. This type of setup may create zones in which personnel may not enter and/or in which work cannot be performed. The system requirements and complexity of the automated tools that may be used with these types of currently available systems may be greater than desired.
Additionally, some currently available support systems may not be reconfigurable. In other words, a support system used for loading wing skins for one type of aircraft may be unable to load wing skins for a different type of aircraft.
Further, these types of support systems may require dedicated tooling, which may increase the cost of using these types of support systems more than desired. The dedicated tooling may be configured for specific types of aircraft, geometry, and/or other factors. Altering a support system to accommodate different types of aircraft and/or different types of geometry may be more difficult than desired and, in some cases, not possible.
Additionally, some support systems may not integrate lifting the wing skins with the handling of the wing systems. For example, in some cases, a dedicated numerically-controlled (NC) lift system may be needed to elevate the tooling needed to assemble a wing skin to a wing box up to the wing box. Using this type of numerically-controlled lift system may be more expensive than desired and may obstruct access to portions of the wing skin and/or the wing box more than desired. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus that take into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as other possible issues.